Tag: Tulip Siddiq

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2025 Resignation Letter to the Prime Minister

    Tulip Siddiq – 2025 Resignation Letter to the Prime Minister

    The resignation letter sent by Tulip Siddiq, the Treasury Minister, to Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, on 14 January 2025.

    Dear Prime Minister,

    Thank you for the confidence you have shown in me in recent weeks.

    I am grateful to your Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards Sir Laurie Magnus for acting with speed and thoroughness in response to my self-referral, and for giving me the opportunity to share the full details of my finances and living arrangements, both present and historic.

    As you know, having conducted an in-depth review of the matter at my request, Sir Laurie has confirmed that I have not breached the Ministerial Code. As he notes, there is no evidence to suggest that I have acted improperly in relation to the properties I have owned or lived in, nor to suggest that any of my assets ‘derive from anything other than legitimate means’.

    My family connections are a matter of public record, and when I became a Minister I provided the full details of my relationships and private interests to the Government. After extensive consultation with officials, I was advised to state in my declaration of interests that my aunt is the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh and to recuse myself from matters relating to Bangladesh to avoid any perception of a conflict of interest. I want to assure you that I acted and have continued to act with full transparency and on the advice of officials on these matters.

    However, it is clear that continuing in my role as Economic Secretary to the Treasury is likely to be a distraction from the work of the Government. My loyalty is and always will be to this Labour Government and the programme of national renewal and transformation it has embarked upon. I have therefore decided to resign from my Ministerial position.

    I would like to thank you for the privilege of serving in your Government, which I will continue to support in any way I can from the backbenches.

    Best wishes, Tulip Siddiq MP

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2024 Speech on the Government’s Vision for the Future of UK Capital Markets

    Tulip Siddiq – 2024 Speech on the Government’s Vision for the Future of UK Capital Markets

    The speech made by Tulip Siddiq, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, at the London Stock Exchange on 6 September 2024.

    Good morning and thanks for the invitation. It’s so lovely to be here today, and it’s one of my first addresses in my new role as City minister.

    And it’s a very deliberate decision that I’ve taken, because growth is the defining mission of this government, which you’ve probably heard us say over and over again. From the top down to the centre out, we recognise the importance of capital markets to delivering this growth mission that we’ve consistently talked about for the last few years. And As the Chancellor herself said – many of you will have heard at Barclays CEO forum recently – “when the City succeeds, Britain succeeds”. Nothing demonstrates that better than our capital markets.

    It’s not just that when our markets do well, our economy does well. Already this year, more than £20 billion worth of equity capital has been raised in London alone, more than three times what has been raised in the next three European exchanges combined – to support businesses to invest, to innovate and to grow.

    And according to a New Financial report from 2020, 90% of large UK companies regularly use capital markets, supporting some 5.5 million jobs. It’s not just large companies which benefit from our markets. Over the last five years combined, more than half of all capital raised in European growth markets was raised in London. And although these facts speak for themselves, I’ll spell out what they say: that UK capital markets will underpin our mission of sustained and meaningful economic growth.

    But I also know that for our capital markets, stability and just the right amount of risk is the formula for economic growth. Whilst too much political change can unbalance that formula by moderating the market’s ability to signal opportunities for profit and risks of loss.

    So let me be clear to everyone who has raised this with me. We will not pursue change for its own sake. The economist Adam Smith once wrote about an invisible hand, a metaphor for the forces that guide decision-making in the market. Well, I want you to be in no doubt – because in the marketplace of ideas, evidence will be the hand that guides our decision making in policy making generally and capital markets policy specifically. You can describe our approach to the existing program of capital markets reform with this timeless saying, which is ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. I hope that reassures some of the people who’ve raised this with me about continuity.

    And while reviewing the existing plans for reform to a capital markets there’s three things that I was struck by. Firstly, the proposals are technically rigorous. Secondly, they have the support of our financial services industry and its regulators. But lastly, and this is most importantly, I know they will support our mission of sustained and meaningful economic growth. And so I, and this government, will support them.

    And I’ll begin that support by highlighting some of the most exciting policy initiatives. Some of which Julia and I were discussing when we came in. For example, the FCA’s changes to our listing rules will revolutionise our markets. By making changes to rules on dual-class share structures, related party transactions and introducing a new international secondary listing category, we will directly align our markets with leading international counterparts and provide greater flexibility to firms and founders raising capital.

    The impact of some of these changes are already being felt, and I’m delighted that some firms are already taking advantage of them.

    The government will also continue to collaborate with a number of industry driven initiatives. Working closely with our Industry Technical group led by Andrew Douglas, and building momentum towards faster settlement of securities trades. And I look forward to the final report of the Task Force led by Sir Douglas Flint on improving the current system of share ownership and eliminating the use of paper share certificates.

    And we remain fully committed, as I just said before we came on, to take forward the new Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System – or PISCES – a world-first bespoke regulated market for private company shares. This will help investors to invest in exciting private companies and support innovative companies to grow – and ultimately to an IPO.

    To my mind, government works best when it’s underpinned by honest and open conversation. And that’s why it’s very important to me to thoroughly examine the feedback from the consultation earlier this year, and to ensure that all of your opinions are properly reflected in our decision-making process.

    And while it’s clear to me that there is huge support for the PISCES project, it is also clear that on the issues of disclosure and market abuse we need to tailor our thinking further. So please be assured that my officials and I will continue working with you. And in that spirit, my officials will be in attendance at the roundtable on PISCES later today, and I’ll ensure that all the conclusions from this roundtable are considered in our final proposal to ensure that PISCES does deliver on its promise.

    But I know that we can go even further to restore competitiveness to our capital markets.

    And of course, a lot of you will be looking forward to the Mansion House speech and the Budget later on, which will set out the plans for our sector in more detail. But I would urge you, if you haven’t already, to look at the report “Financing Growth” – that I published earlier this year – which unapologetically puts really reinvigorating our capital markets at the heart of this government’s growth mission. It’s what we campaigned on, and it’s what we intend to deliver in government.

    They include proposals to encourage the investment of capital freed by Solvency II reforms into UK infrastructure and green industries. To empower the British Business Bank with a more ambitious remit, for example, providing match funding to spin out seed funds. And a landmark review of the UK’s pensions and retirement saving landscape to explicitly consider the role of pension funds in capital and financial markets to boost both their returns and broader economic growth.

    Confirming this review was one of the first announcements made by the Chancellor, and this phase will be led by my colleague Emma Reynolds, who is the Minister for Pensions. She will be speaking here later today. And I encourage you to join this, which is the session on the UK pensions landscape, because Emma will outline the exciting plans that we’ve undertaken as a government.

    So, I do recognise that these proposals are challenging. I’m not naive about it.

    But I am confident looking around this room today and seeing the expertise here, that if we work together, we will be delivering this, because sustained and meaningful economic growth is not just the government’s mission, it’s a mission that we share with everyone in this room.

    So now let’s go out and deliver it.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tulip Siddiq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many complaints were heard by the Pay and Work Rights Helpline regarding employment issues; and how many of these complaints were from (a) interns and (b) apprentices in each of the last five years.

    Nick Boles

    Table 1 shows the total number of complaints made to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline (PWRH) and then referred to the relevant enforcement agency. It also includes a breakdown of the number of complaints from interns and apprentices for 2013/14 and 2014/15; the only years for which this data is available. Data for 2014/15 is the latest year for which full year data are available

    Table 1: Complaints made to the PWRH by caller type, 2009/10 to 2014/15

    2009/10

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    Total Complaints

    4,420

    2,820

    3,110

    3,300

    4,290

    4,160

    Of which

    Apprentices

    –

    –

    –

    –

    170

    140

    Interns

    –

    –

    –

    –

    70

    20

    Source: Pay and Works Rights Helpline

    Notes

    1. Figures are rounded to the nearest ten.
    2. A breakdown of complaints from Apprentice and Interns is not available prior to 2013/14 as these callers types were not considered a prioritised group and were therefore not recorded separately.
    3. The PWRH ‘soft launched’ in May 2009, all other years are on a full financial year basis (April to March).
    4. Enforcement agencies who investigate complaints include HM Revenue and Customs, Employment Agencies Standards Inspectorate, Health and Safety Executive, Gangmasters Licensing Authority and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (until Oct 2013).

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Tulip Siddiq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2015-12-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many tribunal cases there were related to (a) section 17 of the Equalities Act 2010, non-work pregnancy and maternity discrimination and (b) section 18 of the Equalities Act 2010, workplace pregnancy and maternity discrimination in each of the last five years.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    Cases relating to Section 17 of the Equality Act 2010, non-work pregnancy and maternity discrimination, are dealt with in the civil courts. This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

    The number of cases relating to Section 18 of the Equality Act 2010, workplace pregnancy and maternity discrimination, which have been received by the Employment Tribunal can be found in the statistics published at

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-and-gender-recognition-certificate-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2015.

    “

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for how many asylum applications initially rejected by UK Visas and Immigration did applicants subsequently make further submissions which were more than 12 months old; how many such applicants submitted a request to be allowed to work in the UK; how many of those requests to work were rejected; and how long, on average, did it take for those accepted to be given documents confirming their right to work in each year since 2009-10.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office holds reportable information on the number of failed asylum seekers who submit a further submission and how long their case remained outstanding. Permission to work requests are documented on the immigration casework database, but the information is not extractable without interrogating thousands of individual records. Therefore, the information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much the Skills Funding Agency has provided for ESOL Plus Mandation courses in each year since 2009-10.

    Nick Boles

    ESOL Plus (Mandation) funding was introduced in 2014 in order to support the English Language Requirement policy to mandate new Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants with poor spoken English to ESOL training. ESOL Plus (Mandation) funding was additional to the Adult Skills Budget, which providers use to fund ESOL.

    The Skills Funding Agency provided £30m in 2014-15 and £10m in 2015-16 of ESOL Plus (Mandation) funding.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will amend its A&E waiting times target to set a target time for patients to wait from their arrival at hospital to admission.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS England’s urgent and emergency care review is supporting the delivery of new ways of delivering urgent and emergency care to provide highly responsive, effective and personalised care as close to patients’ homes as possible and ensure people with more serious or life threatening emergency care needs are treated in centres with the very best expertise and facilities.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will announce a public consultation to determine the level of support for including mothers’ names on marriage certificates.

    James Brokenshire

    There is agreement that the names of both parents should be included in the marriage entry. The Home Office has, therefore, been working with all interested parties to consider the most efficient and effective way to achieve this. Doing so is likely to require additional funding and changes to legislation, IT systems and administrative processes. A timetable will be confirmed for changes as soon as there is an opportunity to legislate on this matter.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many assessments for disabled students’ allowance (DSA) were carried out by an independent needs assessor in each year since 2009-10; what the average such award was in each of those years; and who was contracted to carry out each of those assessments in each of those years.

    Joseph Johnson

    Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs) are available to help pay the extra essential costs they may have whilst studying on an HE course as a direct result of their disability. The Government recently announced reforms to DSAs to ensure that the limited public funding available for DSAs is targeted in the best way and to achieve value for money, whilst ensuring those disabled students most in need continue to get the help they require. The changes also aim to ensure that Higher Education providers all properly adhere to their Equalities Act 2010 duties, for the benefit of all disabled students.

    All disabled higher education students who are eligible for DSAs are referred to an independent assessment centre so as to identify the type and level of support they require.

    Information in Table 1 sets out the number of study needs assessments carried out by independent assessment centres in England and Wales for English domiciled undergraduate and postgraduate higher education students applying for Student Finance England administered DSAs. Information for numbers of assessments carried out by each assessment centre is not held centrally. Information is not available at individual assessor level. Information for the period prior to 1 April 2011 is not held centrally.

    Table 2 sets out the average award of DSAs in each financial year. A list of currently accredited assessment centres is below.

    Government does not contract with assessment centres. Assessment centres who wish to work in this area are accredited through the DSA Quality Assurance Group, a not-for-profit membership organisation.

    Table 1 –

    Timeframe

    Number of assessments

    1 April 2013 – 31 March 2014

    34,355

    1 April 2012 – 31 March 2013

    32,410

    1 April 2011 – 31 March 2012

    35,073

    Source: DSA Quality Assurance Group management information. Information for the period 1 April 2014 – 31 March 2015 will be available in April 2016.

    Table 2 –

    Average DSA payments to full-time English domiciled students

    Academic years 2009/10 to 2013/14

    Academic year

    Average payment (£)

    2009/10

    2,110

    2010/11

    2,300

    2011/12

    2,350

    2012/13

    2,250

    2013/14

    2,230

    Source: SLC, Student Support for Higher Education in England

    Note: 2013/14 final figures are the latest available

    List of assessment centres in England and Wales

    AbilityNet DSA Assessment Centre

    Access 1st Assessment Centre

    Access Birmingham Assessment Centre

    Access Bristol Assessment Centre

    Access Central Ltd

    Access Centre Coventry

    Access Centre Ealing

    Access Centre Hereford

    Access Independence Ltd

    Access South West

    Access SUMMIT

    Access West of England

    Access@SW15

    Action for Blind People Pan Disability Assessment Centre

    Aim Assessments

    Anglia Access Centre

    Assessment Centre Cardiff

    Assessment Centre Cardiff Metropolitan University

    Assessment Centre on Teesside

    ATOP Chester

    Bangor Access Centre

    Bradford Assessment Centre

    Bridgend Assessment Centre

    Broadbent & Co

    Cambridge Access Centre

    Carmarthenshire Access Centre

    Central London Assessment Services

    Cheltenham Assessment Centre

    Durham University Assessment Centre

    Exeter Access Centre

    Glyndwr University Assessment Centre

    Hertfordshire Access Centre

    Higher York Access Centre

    Hull Assessment Centre

    IONA – Kent and SE Assessment Centre

    Kent Assessors

    Kingston Assessment Services

    Lancaster University Assessment Centre

    Leeds Assessment Centre

    Leeds Metropolitan Disability Assessment Centre

    Leicester Assessment Centre

    Lincoln Assessment Centre

    Lincoln University Assessment Centre

    Loughborough Regional Assessment Centre

    Maritime Assessment Centre

    Midlands Assessment Centre

    Needs Assessment Centre

    Newport Assessment Centre

    North East Regional Assessment Centre

    North London Regional Assessment Centre

    Nottingham Trent University Access Centre

    Nottingham University Access Centre

    Open University Access Centre

    Oxford Access Centre

    Oxford University Assessment Centre

    Pennine Lancashire Access Centre

    Plymouth Assessment Centre

    Portsmouth Assessment Centre

    Reading Assessment Centre

    Regional Access Centre East London

    Sheffield Regional Assessment Centre

    South London Access Centre

    Southampton Assessment and Study Services

    Staffordshire Regional Access Centre

    Surrey Assessment Centre

    Sussex Regional Access Centre

    Swansea Assessment and Training Centre

    Taunton Assessment Centre

    Technical Assessment and Support Centre

    University Centre for Assessments Newcastle

    University of Derby Assessment Centre

    Wessex Needs Assessment Centre

    West London Assessment Centre

    Wolverhampton Assessment Centre

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, on how many occasions in each year since 2009-10 he has directed that a planning application appeal which would otherwise be determined by a person appointed by the Secretary of State will instead be determined by the Secretary of State, using his powers under Schedule 6, Paragraph 3 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

    Brandon Lewis

    The attached table shows the number of S78 planning appeals that have been recovered over the last decade.